Industrial process control and automation systems are often used to automate large and complex industrial processes. These types of systems routinely include various components including sensors, actuators, and process controllers. Some of the process controllers can receive measurements from the sensors and generate control signals for the actuators.
While originally viewed negatively due to actual or perceived concerns over reliability, it has become common for wireless devices to be used for data acquisition and monitoring functions in control and automation systems. Data acquisition functions generally relate to capturing data associated with one or more industrial processes and relaying that data to one or more destinations. Monitoring functions generally relate to monitoring the operation of one or more industrial processes in order to identify abnormal or other conditions associated with the industrial processes.